A Research on Distance Education and Alienation in Academic Staff During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, countries have had to review their education policies and make adjustments accordingly. In this regard, distance education has been adopted in universities in Turkiye, and each university has created its own distance education strategy. Distance education, once only a complementary to education, replaced traditional education when the pandemic turned out to be unlikely to end in the short run. Although some universities are experienced in distance education, this sudden pandemic has caused disruptions (digital inequality, technological infrastructure problems, etc.) and unprecedented situations catching most universities off-guard. One of these is the emergence or the change of alienation seen in academic staff due to distance education. The aim of the study is to identify the work alienation of academics during the Covid-19 pandemic and reveal the underlying reasons, with the help of semi-structured interview technique within the framework of the phenomenological approach, one of the qualitative research methods. For this purpose, interviews through the Google Meet application were held with 12 academics. Content analysis was applied to the data obtained from these interviews. As a result, it was found that the interviewed academics were adversely affected by the distance education method and they were not competent enough to use it. It was also revealed that they were unable to identify their demands regarding their economical and technical needs yet at the same time they were not satisfied with the support provided by their institutions.

The Effect of Control on The Prevention of Online Examination Fraud.

“…The findings of this study indicate that the implementation of identity verification measures has a negligible beneficial effect on deterring instances of online examination fraud. This result aligns with the discovery made by Farisi (2013). One possible explanation for the limited effect observed could be attributed to the unreliability of online identity verifications in the era of sophisticated technology that can assist individuals to impersonate students sitting for online examination.…”

How can distance learning offer opportunities for developing countries? Case of Turkey and Kazakhstan

“…Some universities that are not experienced in distance education and have yet to invest in this field have experienced various problems related to technological infrastructure. The most critical problem encountered is the inadequacy of many instructors in digital literacy and learning (Alan, 2021;Unluer & Ayhan, 2023). Likewise, this rapid transition was problematic for the students; on social media, many expressed wanting something other than distance education, that summer courses, etc., should compensate for it.…”

The Effects of Using Flipped Cloud Learning With Advancing Mathematical Thinking Approaches on Undergraduate Students’ Mathematical Critical Thinking

“…Distance learning, also known as distance education, e-learning, and online learning became an important tool for teaching and learning during this period (Al-Naabi et al, 2022). In distance learning, there is a physical separation between instructors and students, and educational technologies are used to support communication between them (Karahisar & Unluer, 2022). This can be employed in both synchronous or asynchronous modes (Purbudak, Yilmaz, & Cakir, 2022).…”